Today, the issue of social protection has reached a historic turning point at which the region is called upon to take a different approach in coping with the new global order and its implications for national societies. The starting point for this study is the principle that a rights-based approach should be used in framing public policy. The study, therefore, seeks to address the challenge of combining the ethical aspect of social rights with viable ways of strengthening citizens’ entitlement to such rights in highly inequitable and relatively poor societies. It includes an analysis of various aspects of social protection systems (health care, social security and poverty reduction) and their potential to guarantee social rights in structurally heterogeneous societies.The idea at the core of this proposal is that the Latin American and Caribbean economies will have to transform their production structures, as well as embark upon an intensive process of human capital formation, in order to move their development process forward. The proposals put forward in this document are designed to build bridges between social rights and policy guidelines aimed at making them more enforceable through improved access, better financing and greater solidarity.